Hello, bloggers.

Last week was unusual in the loss of people that we admired, revered, and looked on as leaders.

To me, Ed McMahon always seemed to be the epitome of a friend as he sat with Johnny Carson.  He could always be counted on to interact with the guests, to laugh uproariously, to be a known quantity, and to look at things in that glass-half-full, Little Orphan Annie way.

I understand that he had many financial problems in older life, but he never seemed to complain, and the reports that I heard said that when he left, he wasn’t complaining about his infirmities or old age.  So for someone who was the eternal straight man, sidekick, and average bloke—there’s certainly a lot to say about an average bloke who lived and left us with such good will and class.

Farrah Fawcett was an icon to all teenagers in the 1970s.  That great poster of hers, which emulated freedom of expression—the sexiest girlfriend to have—the most desirable partner that one can have—gave us an illusion of our Don Juan style of thinking of ourselves, even if we were a bumbling, drooling idiot.  The way she handled her death was a great example to us all.

To me, Cardinal Bernardin, the late Archbishop of Chicago, was another great example of how to face up to the reality of death.  We all seem to think of death as the Great Satan, the Great No-no, but as we learned from Cardinal Bernardin—and from Farrah Fawcett in her own way as she battled cancer and made peace with the inevitability of death—death is a part of the circle of life, death, and rebirth.

And finally, in the last part of last week, with the passing of the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, I think his death dimmed the creative lights of the world.  His integration of dance and song, the masterful way he put them together, his quest for fulfillment—he will go down as one of the greatest imaginations of the possibility of the human experience as it’s interpreted through the whole package of song and dance presentation.

From the time he was a child until he left the world stage at 50, he was always “on.”  I think that is a great blessing but also a great curse.I think our greatest quest is always to find ourselves:  to look at the billions of years inside ourselves, pulled them out, and present them to the world.

In the world of entertainment, I can’t remember if anybody was doing that from the very beginning like Michael Jackson was, creating those wonderful moments, the moonwalking and his other stylizations of his presentation and musicality.

To have been what he was so constantly throughout his life must have been a great drain on him personally.  It seemed that he didn’t have the sustaining memories of childhood, which should really be a time of building up a reserve of good will toward yourself, of fun adventures...

But as you look at his life, he was creating all the time.  That must’ve been a tremendous strain on his spirit and his material well-being.

To me, he was an extraordinarily unique individual.  Isn’t it ironic that his former late father-in-law, Elvis Presley, left in what appears to be much the same way he did.  It’s an almost eerie prediciton of what a truly great talent has to put up with.

That kind of talent doesn’t come without a price.  Everyone thinks, “Oh, if I had that talent and that amount of adulation and money, then I would have happiness.”

But for happiness, we have to have time and the mental space for reflection, the savoring of what you’re doing.

That’s one of the reasons that a painter is blessed:  There is so much time you’re able to spend by yourself, without any of the distractions of daily life, and with the opportunity to be alone with your thoughts, your introspection.  That, to me, is a great gift, which I don’t think that the Michael Jacksons or the Elvis Presleys or the Judy Garlands of the world have.

I suppose that comes with the territory.  But I wonder, when someone like that passes from the scene, whether it’s the universe calling them to go forward somewhere else—and will they have an easier or a harder time there?  I think there are special trials for special people, and last week, three of those people went on to their next adventures.

Matt